Broadwood bass strings

[John Delacour]

At 19:38 +0100 23/9/07, David Boyce wrote:

>I was struck by how close to the bridge pins the bass string 
>windings start. Sorry about the quality of the photo, I only had my 
>cellphone with me.  Do you think they messed up a set of strings or 
>something? Not much room for error here!

So long as there's some room, that's all that's needed.  Different 
makers have different ideas about the length of uncovered wire at the 
bridge.  For the other extreme cf. Bechstein, who leave an inch or so 
uncovered at the bridge and 1 1/2 inches at the top.  Different 
choices add different types of characteristic noise.  Unless I am 
specifically required to do otherwise, I aim to have 5 or 6 mm 
uncovered at the bridge and about 15 mm at the top, or even less if I 
am making the strings for my own pianos.

On another tack, I bought a Rittmüller double soundboard piano last 
week. The bass was good enough in parts, though nothing like it 
should be given the great length of the strings.  The top single was 
not only dull but would not stay up, and the pin was nearly bottomed. 
I shall be restringing the piano, but I decided to replace the G# in 
question because it annoyed me.  I calculated the tension on this 
string as 410 lbs. on a No. 22.5 core!  That's even crazier than 
Schiedmayer!  I made a new string on a 21.5 core to come to pith at 
290 lbs, and after two days it is stable and is the best-sounding 
string in the section, far purer than the living ones among the 
originals and in no way less powerful.  I have never understood why 
certain makers pushed their tensions to the limit (which is way 
beyond the limit of modern wire) only to shorten the life of their 
pianos and to give a quality of tone that is inferior in every way to 
that achievable with moderate tensions.  Maybe the reason there are 
so few Rittmüllers around is that most of them became untunable.

JD

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